Short Film Theater: ‘The Legend of Beaver Dam’

Campfire ghost stories are the epitome of horror. Horror roots spawn around campfires. “Legend of Beaver Dam” combines horror with musical and does so in form of a short.

I was very skeptical upon hitting play on this one. As much as I adore musicals and have an unnatural clinging to horror, it is very hard to combine the two — let alone in a short. The one film that mashed the two genres well together was “Repo: The Genetic Opera,” which was not widely distributed.

“Legend of Beaver Dam,” however, did not fold on the entertainment scaffolding. Blood, guts, music and a twist, what more could a girl ask for really? The music is intoxicating, I seriously had it stuck in my head for quite some time after watching. Coupled with some very stylized splattering of blood and blade swings, “Legend of Beaver Dam” is not easily forgettable, and it’s very easily a short film that you wish was anything but.

I urge you to take five minutes to watch “Legend of Beaver Dam,” directed by Jerome Sable, who co-wrote the film with Eli Batalion. Known as the musical with guts, this short has cult classic written all over it.